Shade of Mercy
by Ana Graves
Summary: Set few months after 3x11. Stefan successfully destroyed the Originals. Klaus's revenge won't be a little one...


After watching "Our town" I totally fell in love with Klaus & Caroline, so I had to write something about them, of course. Enjoy!

I don't own Vampire Diaries.

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><p>Klaus was sitting on the bed in Stefan's bedroom and looking blindly at the wall opposite. He still felt the bitter taste of blood in his throat. Drops of red liquid gathered in the angles of his mouth. He should've been satisfied. He should've felt some kind of pride or something like that. Instead, he was completely empty. Like it was he who lay as a body without a soul on the floor, drained of blood.<p>

He showed them what he was able to do and how his anger looked like. He proved that nothing could stop him. But the price was too high. He lost everything he ever had. Or he thought he had.

The floor of the room was covered with bodies. Elena, Matt, Bonnie, Alaric, sheriff Forbes, the mayor, Salvatore brothers, even Tyler. He was very surprised that he remembered the name of every pathetic creature that entered the bedroom this night just to stay here forever.

But it wasn't the end. The rest of the corpses rested in Damon's room. Few hours ago those bodies were members of the council or their families. But was that important now?

Currently they were swimming in the ocean of their own blood. No, swimming was an activity of living beings. And they weren't living beings anymore. They were dead. Eternally dead. Well, most of them.

Elena had her eyes wide open. Klaus could see fear and horror in them. And the last flicker of life. He should've done something to save her. She was, as a matter of fact, the one and the only thing he still needed. But he did nothing to help her. He just didn't care anymore. Even terrible fright in her eyes didn't amuse him, as it used to be before.

He heard silent footsteps on the corridor below. He smiled. She was so predictable – she could be here five times by now, but she still preferred an illusion of being a human.

She had learned nothing from him. He had just wasted his time. It was sad. Finally, there was an emotion. A small one, but nonetheless, an emotion.

Caroline lastly reached the room. She stopped in the doorway, her smile fading, converting into grimace of fear and disbelief. She gasped heavily. Again, such a human thing. He was very disappointed.

'No,' she whispered, shaking her head. 'No! What have you done?'

He didn't answer. It was just a rhetorical question. He watched her with little smile.

She fell onto her knees; tears shone in her eyes. It was obvious that she didn't know what to do: should she try to save them? Or should she cry above every body, accepting their deaths? Should she try to make him pay for what he had done, even if she couldn't kill him? He was playing in his head with every possible scenario, having really great fun. It was quite refreshing after this terrible emptiness that he experienced moments ago.

Whisper converted into a scream of dismay. He expected something more dramatic.

After few seconds of sobbing Caroline felt that Elena was still alive. She crawled to her friend and bit her own wrist. She tried to make Elena drink her blood, but to no avail.

'Please, Elena,' she cried, biting herself harder and harder. 'Don't do that to me...'

They both knew that it was too late. They heard Elena's little heart flickering weaker and weaker like a bird in a cage, trying to get out of his prison. After few extremely long seconds it stopped beating.

Caroline yowled and buried her face in Elena's dress. She was sobbing and shivering, which started to infuriate Klaus. It was a new feeling and a relief, that he could analyze another people's pain instead of his own, so he did nothing to stop it.

She finally lifted her head and, sniffing, looked around. Every new body, every new identity she discovered, meant new devastating pain to her already broken heart and new quiet groan.

'Mom...,' she tried to whisper, crawling to her mother, but words didn't want to come out from her squeezed throat. She hid her face in her own hands and cried, loudly and heavily.

He wanted to stop it – the harsh sounds prickled his ears – but the curiosity won.

Finally, she looked at him with such an anger that he smiled with contempt.

'What kind of monster are you?' she hissed and stood up. Lightnings were flashing in her eyes.

'A normal one. The same I used to be all the way,' he answered, teasing with her. 'What did you think, honey? That I stopped being a monster? Or maybe that I have never been one?'

He also stood up and came closer to her. She shivered when he touched her cheek and pushed his hand away angrily.

'Have you really thought so high of me?'

His smile became sarcastic. They both knew what he was talking about.

She trembled with anger. She wanted to wipe this stupid, annoying smile out off his face, she wanted him to feel the same pain that she did. But she doubted if he could feel anything but revenge. It even wasn't exactly an emotion.

'Have you killed the whole city or just a half?' she asked icily. 'Or maybe just people close to me?'

'Somewhere in the middle,' he answered airily. She slapped his face so quickly that he didn't see a move of her hand. He laughed. 'Maybe, after all, you've learned something from me. It's a big compliment, are you aware of it?'

'A compliment coming from your mouth is an insult for my ears,' her voice was sharp and cold. She even managed to stop it from shivering.

'Auch!' he smiled again and in the same moment he thought that she deserved some explanation. 'You should understand the laws of vendetta. It's very simple. Someone takes something away from you, so you take something away from them. A life, for example. As I said, it's very simple.'

'You've killed everyone I have ever loved and you want me to understand?' she really couldn't believe her own ears. But she should've never forgotten that she dealt with Klaus, not with someone else. He understood the world in a different way than normal people. She had forgotten about that. And it was the biggest mistake she had ever made.

'You have ever loved?' he became irritated. 'You, you and you. You should be less selfish, Caroline. Are you still under the illusion that you were an important person in this game? That you were of any importance? That I killed them to punish you for something that you did or didn't do? Stop flattering yourself. You were just an annoying fly without expiration date.'

New pain glistened in her eyes. She didn't want that, but it hurt her.

'You deserve to be alone for all the eternity,' she snarled looking straight into his eyes. 'You deserve the worst on this earth. Your family were lucky that they were blessed with death or something else that happened to them. They don't have to pretend that they love you.'

After this poisonous words she turned and started walking towards the door. He didn't give her a chance to reach it. He grabbed her by the wrists and threw her on the bed. She tried to set herself free, but he was too strong.

'Let go of me!' she cried, but he didn't mind. He was holding her strongly. Sadistic smile brighten his face.

'You're right,' he whispered straight into her ear. 'It may be a blessing. So I'll make your wish come true and bless you too.'

He ran his lips down her neck and bit her. She moaned.

'Now, dearest Caroline, you've joined the club.' He let her go and stood up.

She didn't move, lying on the bed and breathing heavily. Her eyes were dry now, with no tears. Fear, hatred and relief were mixing in them. She looked so beautiful with a crown of blond hair unfurling round her head. And so brave...

He was standing above her and looking into her eyes with a strange shade of mercy in his own irises. A series of pictures were displaying in his brain. Pictures with her in the main role.

He smiled and stroke her cheek. He taught her a lot, but she also gave him an important lesson he'll never forget.

He sighed and touched her lips with his fingers.

'You were someone, Caroline. Someone very important,' he whispered. Nothing has changed in her eyes. He bowed down and kissed her slightly. Then he staked her heart. 'Goodbye, dearest.'

It was his shade of mercy.

He looked at her one last time and left the room and the house. Then he set fire to it and watched the performance of flames. It was his past that will be buried here so that no one could ever have access to it.

Caroline showed him something that he also had to bury. She showed him that he was, after all, able to love somebody.

It was very important knowledge. He now knew that this stupid feeling could make him weaker. And he couldn't let himself be weak. Knowing this he could root out this feeling and erase completely, so it would be of no danger in the future.

The true reason of his attitude was quite different. He knew how his fate will look like. Only one word was written in big letters in his very own destiny. And it definitely wasn't love.

It was loneliness. And he agreed to it.

He exited Mystic Falls that night, leaving the city in the same state that he was in - deserted and lonely. For all eternity.


End file.
